Durban - A fleet of police vehicles has been delivered to the Diepsloot police station in Gauteng on Thursday following a recent spate of murders which caused an uproar in the community.
Sixteen vehicles were delivered to the police station as per Police Minister Bheki Cele’s pledge made on Wednesday, according to his spokesperson Lirandzu Themba.
“As per the commitment made by the police ministry and SA Police Service management, new patrol vehicles have been delivered to the Diepsloot police station. Once branded, the vehicles will add to the existing fleet and should improve service delivery,” Themba said.
[SERVICE DELIVERY] As per the commitment made by the Police Ministry and @SAPoliceService management, new patrol vehicles have been been delivered to the #Diepsloot police station. Once branded, the vehicles will add to the existing fleet and should improve service delivery. pic.twitter.com/p7Ea2nRg9l
— Lirandzu Themba (@LirandzuThemba) April 7, 2022
Cele descended on Diepsloot yesterday in efforts to bring calm to the escalating situation between South African residents and foreign nationals.
Community members in Diepsloot say crime is getting out of control and called for more police resources to be made available.
Among other things, Cele said that 16 vehicles would be delivered to the area.
“We are coming back on Friday to have a programme going forward on how we sustain things that we have agreed to and things that we have put in here.
“Tonight, as we’ve said, the national commissioner (Fannie Masemola) is here, he’s bringing special units of TRT, we are bringing POP, people from metro, a special detective team to deal with cold cases and we are bringing 16 more cars in the next 24 hours,” Cele told the media in Diepsloot yesterday.
The minister said that since the last quarter, October 2021 to December 2021, 11 murders occurred while only four people were arrested. Since the weekend, around five to seven people were murdered.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, it was reported that a man, Elvis Nyathi, was stoned and set alight by a mob. A member of the community told local media that they do not condone Nyathi’s murder and wanted to resolve their issues amicably.
Residents embarked on a community shutdown at the start of the week after voicing their concerns about the appalling crime plaguing the poverty-stricken township, which lies just 25km away from Africa’s richest square mile, Sandton.
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